Here's today's video: https://youtube.com/shorts/DBPjSsr4N3o A renewal email from a template sounds like a template, and your donor can tell. So teach your AI how you write, once. Step 1: Open your AI's settings and find custom instructions. Step 2: Paste something like this, with your own details: "I'm the development director at [your organization]. I write to donors, our board and volunteers. I use short sentences and no jargon." Step 3: Give each audience its own space, a Project in ChatGPT or Claude, or a Gem in Gemini, and add a few plain rules, like: "Use the donor's first name. Start with one thing that happened this week. Make only one ask." Your task this week: set up one space for donor emails, and share one rule you added in the comments.

Here's today's video: https://youtube.com/shorts/MHQaAOfEW7o Meta's new AI agent, Muse, can take actions for you, including email. Meta says you choose which apps it connects to and, for email, whether it only reads your mail or can also send for you. It also checks with you before sensitive actions like sending an email. Step 1: Connect one app only. Step 2: Set email to read only until you trust it. Step 3: Read every email in full before you say yes. Source: Meta Newsroom, Introducing Muse, 8 Sep 2026 Your task this week: list every AI tool on your team that can send anything on its own, and share the number in the comments.

Here's today's video: https://youtube.com/shorts/etVIKyV88_g Claude Docs works on every Claude plan, even the free one. Here's how to try it. Step 1: Open Claude and upload last year's report. Step 2: Paste this prompt: "Turn this report into a one-page summary for our board. Use a big headline and our three biggest results. Keep the sentences short and skip the jargon." Step 3: Click into the doc and fix anything that's wrong, right there on the page. Step 4: Check every number against your original report before you share it. Source: Anthropic, Get started with Claude Docs (support.claude.com/en/articles/16923645) Your task this week: make the one-page version of your last report, and comment here with one thing Claude got wrong, so we all learn from it.

There's one habit that quietly puts your biggest donor's trust at risk. We copy last year's numbers into this year's report, and after a few rounds nobody remembers where they came from. Here's what I would do instead. Put last year's report, your program notes and the funder's guidelines into Gemini Notebook, the Google tool that used to be called NotebookLM. Take donor names and personal details out first, every time. Then ask it to draft from only those files and show where each fact came from, and click the citations before you send. Every screen in the video is real. Redbud Food Network is a fictional organization, and its numbers are made up for training. Watch it here: https://youtube.com/shorts/7vp7W0vwwfo The prompt to copy: "Draft this year's report using only these files. Show me where each fact came from." Step 1: Add your files. Last year's report, your program notes and the funder's guidelines. Step 2: Ask for a draft from those files only, using the prompt above. Step 3: Click every citation before you send. Each one opens the exact line in your file. Before you upload, take out donor details. Swap each donor name for a label, like Donor A. Delete emails, phone numbers and street addresses. Keep only the totals you need for the report. Your task this week: try it on one report, and post one number it traced back for you in the comments. I'll reply to every one.

https://youtu.be/7aDJx-uai4s In this first episode of my new series, "How I AI," I’m pulling back the curtain on my daily workflow as a Digital Marketing Strategist for a $25M youth homelessness nonprofit in Austin, Texas. After 15 years in the social impact sector and 3 years consulting via Grow That Impact, I’m showing you the exact "housekeeping" steps I take to turn an AI into a high-level thinking partner. In this video, you’ll learn: - The Switch: Why I moved from being a ChatGPT power user to using Claude as my primary co-pilot. - Custom Instructions: How to set up Claude to stop "buttering you up" and start challenging your arguments with factual data. - The Migration: My "genius" hack for moving your entire project history from ChatGPT/Gemini into Claude using Markdown files. - Claude in Chrome: Why this specific extension is a game-changer for real-time research and browsing. - Think vs. Do: My philosophy on why you should use AI to ideate and strategize, not just to write banal emails. If you’re working in a nonprofit or social impact org, this series is designed to help you do more with the limited time you have.